Warriors may interview Steve Kerr for coaching job

Steve Kerr, the TNT broadcaster and five-time NBA champion, could be interviewed for the Warriors coaching job, according to co-owner Joe Lacob, who said he would consider a second straight hire with no prior coaching experience.

Kerr's agent, Mike Tannenbaum, said Wednesday that the former Chicago Bulls sharpshooter was expected to speak with family members in the coming days about his future.

Tannenbaum declined to comment on reports the Warriors had reached out to Kerr on Tuesday, the same day they fired Mark Jackson. Just before the firing, Tannenbaum told New York radio station WFAN that besides Kerr's interest in the Knicks job, "there could be some other openings."

Former Suns general manager and current NBA analyst Steve Kerr could be a candidate to replace Mark Jackson as the Warriors' new coach. (Associated Press)

Kerr, 48, lives in San Diego and has a Bay Area connection as his daughter, Maddy, plays volleyball for Cal.

"Steve's daughter is at (Cal). She's a star. I'm sure that's tugging at him a little bit," Lute Olson, Kerr's college coach at Arizona, told Newsday.

Kerr also has ties to Lacob, who said the two have known each other for 20 years. Kerr worked with Warriors president Rick Welts while with the Phoenix Suns. Warriors assistant general manager Kirk Lacob, Joe's son, had a job lined up to work for Kerr before Kerr's resignation as Suns general manager.

A hot coaching commodity despite his lack of experience, Kerr could wind up taking the Knicks job to reunite with former Bulls coach and current Knicks president Phil Jackson. The two sides have already met.

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That the Warriors have had more talent in place and recent success with back-to-back playoff appearances could attract Kerr, who like Mark Jackson played more than a decade in the NBA before doing broadcasting work.

The Warriors also have contacted Stan Van Gundy, and there is interest from the former Miami Heat and Orlando Magic coach, Yahoo Sports reported. Van Gundy went to high school in Martinez.

Mark Jackson shot back at Joe Lacob during a series of radio interviews a day after his firing.

"This ownership group has never experienced bad basketball or years and years and years of not winning, so winning, they don't understand how tough it is," Jackson told Sirius XM, noting Golden State had missed the playoffs 17 of 18 years before back-to-back playoff appearances.

Jackson spoke of the strength of the Western Conference to underscore success during the Warriors' 47- and 51-win seasons and also to explain why he might not have met an expectation of earning home-court advantage in the playoffs this season that Lacob said Tuesday was "reasonable."

"For us to be a top-four team, which was the expectation so they say, it's not realistic," Jackson said.

Jackson also went into more detail in describing how it came to be that two of his assistant coaches were forced off the bench shortly before the playoffs.

Jackson said Brian Scalabrine showed "disrespect," as the assistant reportedly did not speak for weeks to the head coach before being reassigned to Santa Cruz. Jackson called Darren Erman's violation of company policy "inexcusable," as the assistant reportedly secretly taped conversations in the coaches' room.

"For folks to say in two situations where obviously it's documented that they both were 100 percent wrong, the only fault I got is hiring those guys," Jackson said.

Jackson told "The Dan Patrick Show" he had wanted to see change in the Warriors' work environment before a meeting with Lacob and general manager Bob Myers where he was fired.

"My mind was made up whether I was going or staying, so it wasn't a one-way decision," Jackson said.